VOCABULARY INPUT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Transcription

International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research
Vol.3,No.1,pp.1-14 ,January 2015
Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)
VOCABULARY INPUT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING: ASSESSING THE
VOCABULARY LOAD IN SPINE FIVE
Dr. Ibrahim Mohamed Alfaki
King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, KSA.
Nile Valley University, Atbara, North Sudan.
ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the vocabulary load in Spine 5 (Sudan Practical
Integrated National English, Book 5 ). Studies of vocabulary load are scares in Sudan. So this
study will contribute to the improvement of EFL textbooks and material development. The study
attempts to examine the characteristic features of the lexical items included in book five : their
total number , frequencies , recycling , usefulness for learners , suitability to learners’ level,
grading and presentation. The researcher uses from within the descriptive method the content
analysis technique. The analysis includes the vocabulary list of Spine 5 teacher's book, the first
three 1000 high frequency word lists from British National Corpus and Spine 5 pupil's book .
Ten words from the most recycled words are selected in order to test spaced recycling of
vocabulary. Then the data are classified ,organized, analyzed, discussed and interpreted. The
analysis of the new vocabulary items in Spine 5 shows that this textbook reflects a level of
difficulty because it contains a large number of low frequency words. There is also a poor
provision of new vocabulary items. 43.8 % of vocabulary items have not been recycled and
44.4% words have insufficient recycling. Even those which have sufficient recycling; are not
systematically recycled. Massed recycling is performed with very few words. The few words
which have spaced recycling are high frequency words; massed recycling is found in all pages
of Spine 5 pupils’ book.
KEYWORDS: Spine Five , EFL textbooks , vocabulary recycling, vocabulary load.
INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or
chunks of several words which covey a particular meaning, the way individual words do.
Vocabulary addresses single lexical items—words with specific meaning(s)—but it also
includes lexical phrases or chunks.
The importance of vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without
sufficient vocabulary learners cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Wilkins
(1972, pp. 111–112) wrote “. . . while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. Lewis (1993(p. 89) wrote “ lexis is the core or heart
of language” . As learners develop greater fluency and expression in English, it is significant
for them to acquire more productive vocabulary knowledge and to develop their own personal
vocabulary learning strategies. Learners often instinctively recognize the importance of
vocabulary to their language learning. Schmitt (2010, p. 4) wrote “learners carry around
dictionaries and not grammar books” so teaching vocabulary helps learners understand and
communicate with others in English. The concept of a word can be defined in various ways,
but three significant aspects teachers need to be aware of and focus on are form, meaning, and
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use. According to Nation (2001), the form of a word involves its pronunciation (spoken form),
spelling (written form), and any word parts that make up this particular item (such as a prefix,
root, and suffix). Nation (2001) stated that meaning encompasses the way that form and
meaning work together, in other words, the concept and what items it refers to, and the
associations that come to mind when people think about a specific word or expression. Use,
Nation noted, involves the grammatical functions of the word or phrase, collocations that
normally go with it, and finally any constraints on its use, in terms of frequency, level, and so
forth. For form, meaning, and use, Nation (2001) declared there is both a receptive and
productive dimension, so knowing these three aspects for each word or phrase actually involves
18 different types of lexical knowledge, as summarized in Table 1. teachers teach vocabulary
to build students’ knowledge of words and phrases, helping them learn any and all of these
different components assists them in enhancing their English vocabulary knowledge and use.
In North Sudan like in many countries where English is taught as a foreign language, teaching
and learning depend heavily on textbooks . Textbooks, therefore, represent the most important
factor that have a great influence on achieving the goal of teaching. Hutchinson and Torres
(1994:327) state that " the textbook is a visible and workable frame work around which the
many forces and demands of the teaching –learning process can cohere to provide the bases
at security and accountability that is necessary for [a] purposeful action in the classroom" .
The textbook is the best guide for effective learning and acquiring vocabulary. Student in Sudan
rely completely on the textbook to support their learning, Parish (2004:227) describes the
benefit of using textbook "[the] textbook can meet learners need on expansions of having
something concrete to work from and take home for further study". For this reason analyzing
and evaluating textbook contents before and after use is a common activity in the field of
teaching and researching English as a foreign language .The process of producing English
language textbooks in Sudan has passed through a series of changes in search for a satisfactory
standard of effective teaching and learning. Thus, a close look at textbook contents is needed
to enable teachers exploit it usefully.
The purpose of this study is to examine the vocabulary load of Spine 5which is taught to
students of second year at secondary school level. Spine 5 has been in use since 1996 as the
main tool in teaching and learning English language. The book aims to develop all language
skills with special emphasis on reading and writing as mentioned in the teachers' book
.However, it doesn’t' provide enough information about selection and presentation of
vocabulary, instead of that spine 5 writers say: (P .ii) Although the words may seem difficult
and the pupils will have to work very hard to learn them, they will then be able to understand
and talk about topics which are very important in today's world and related to Sudanese
society.
SPINE 5 has been chosen for this study because students are looking towards Sudanese
certificate where knowledge of vocabulary is a major prerequisite. On the other hand English
language teachers regard Spine 5 as the richest one in vocabulary. So English language teachers
need to know exactly what kind of vocabulary is provided? How many words are introduced?
And how new words are presented? Precise information about vocabulary load can be used in
selecting and exploiting vocabulary effectively. Vocabulary is central to language nevertheless,
the teaching and learning of vocabulary has been neglected in the field of second language
acquisition . Hedge (2000:110) wrote " vocabulary acquisition had received short shrift from
applied linguistics" Recently, vocabulary have been considered one of the most important
aspects of second language learning. Famous researchers like West and Nation have built a
scientific basis for selecting the vocabulary content of a language course, they have created a
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list according to word usefulness and frequency. This study investigates the selection of
vocabulary used in Spine5 to see if the selection has been made for vocabulary and the
vocabulary are in line with latest studies. The study compares the kind of vocabulary with the
first three 1000 high frequency word lists which are made from British National Corpus.
Statement of the Problem
Sudanese English language teachers need to know exactly what kind of vocabulary is provided
in Spine 5 ? How many words are provided ? Is the vocabulary load adequate and in harmony
with the international standards? And how new words are to be presented? Precise information
about vocabulary load can be used in selecting and exploiting vocabulary effectively.
Objectives
1. To list and count the vocabulary item in Spine 5.
2. To compare the list with first three 1000 high frequency word lists of BNC.
3. To what extent are new vocabulary items given enough recycling?
4. To what extent are new vocabulary presented in spaced recycling?
Questions of the Study
1. How many new words are there in Spine 5?
2. How does Spine 5 word list relate to the BNC first three lists?
3. How many times each word is repeated?
4. How are vocabulary items recycled in Spine 5?
5. What are the characteristic features of the vocabulary in Spine 5?
Hypotheses
1. All the words in Spine 5 vocabulary list are related to the BNC first three lists.
2. Not all words are given enough recycling.
3. Spine 5 is not based on the principles of the strict control of spaced recycling presentation.
Significance of the study
The study is hoped to :
1. Help English language teachers to make the best decisions regarding vocabulary teaching
and learning.
2. Encourage researchers in the field of teaching English language to examine and make
comparison between textbooks.
3. Help syllabus designers.
The limitation of the study
This study is limited to study of the vocabulary of Spine 5 which should be taught as new
words. It is conducted in the school year 2013 -2014
METHODOLOGY
The researcher uses from within the descriptive method the content analysis technique. The
analysis includes the vocabulary list of Spine 5 teacher's book, the first three 1000 high
frequency word lists from British National Corpus and Spine 5 pupil's book . Ten words from
the most recycled words will be selected in order to test spaced recycling of vocabulary. Then
the data are classified ,organized, analyzed, discussed and interpreted.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Attitude towards Vocabulary
For many years vocabulary has been undervalued in the field of second language teaching and
learning, but recently a change of attitude towards vocabulary has occurred. According to
Laufer (1997, 147)
“ vocabulary is no longer a victim of discrimination in second language learning research, or
in language teaching. After decades of neglect lexis is now recognized as central to any
language acquisition process, native or non native .what many language teachers might have
intuitively known for a long time, that a sold vocabulary is necessary in every stage of language
learning, is now being openly stated by some language researchers .”
Change of attitude towards vocabulary is due to the spread of the audio lingual method
followed by the communicative approach ,since then the findings of applied linguistics slim
down the syntax and give more importance to the lexicon .This revolution of vocabulary has
created explosion of publications on vocabulary aimed at second language teachers and course
designers.Carter, R. (1998:184) thinks that vocabulary was neglected in second language
researches, as a result of syntax and phonology domination in this field. Moreover, vocabulary
presentation seems to be difficult task for syllabus designers because of its infinite nature. But
now vocabulary is in the top of researchers' consideration.Jordens , et al (1996:359) believe
that vocabulary is more important than grammar because people generally use vocabulary and
reduce grammar particularly when getting a message across quickly and precisely is of the
utmost importance; like telegrams, panic situations or times when emotions are very high.
Moreover, the number of ungrammatical sentences people speak and write is enormous, unless
they need to convey complex messages precisely. It is clear that vocabulary has been
recognized as a key area of language knowledge.
Vocabulary Knowledge
Foreign language teachers and learners generally measure vocabulary knowledge by the
number of words that a learner knows. They believe that knowing a word means being able to
know its meaning and being able to use it correctly. They know that it is much easier for the
learner to recognize a word than to produce it . There is clear distinction between the
recognition of a word and ability to use it, many criteria are used to define word knowledge
for example, Milton (2009:13) states two types of knowledge involved in being able to use a
word properly and effectively in a foreign language. Receptive knowledge represents the words
that are recognized when heard or read. Productive knowledge refers to the word that can be
called to the mind and used in speech or writing. Milton believes that it is useful in teaching
and learning English as a second language to specify receptive vocabulary and productive one.
Some syllabus designers divide their word list into words the learner expect to know passively
and those they expect learners to know actively..
Vocabulary Size
It seems necessary to specify what and how much vocabulary a language learner needs. Gound,
Nation, Read 1990 cited in Horvath and Nikolov (2007: 294) think that to investigate progress
in vocabulary knowledge it is necessary to describe vocabulary in quantitative and qualitative
measures. They assert that the most striking difference between native speaker and second or
foreign language learner seem to be in the number of words they know. To measure receptive
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vocabulary they describe the method of dictionary sampling as a reliable way of determining
the size of first language vocabulary they estimated that adult educated native speakers of
English have a receptive vocabulary of around 17,000 base word.According to (Nation 2001,
9) syllabus designers need to know the vocabulary size of native's speaker and the number of
words need to use the language. English language constituted by 54.000 word family. The
amount of word family known by an educated native speakers is 20.000 word family. Nation
and Waring (1997, 8)assert that learners can communicate efficiently in English with much
smaller vocabulary size than native speaker who have an adequate vocabulary size to use a
language because these number of words in English language occur very frequently and if a
learner knows these words , that learner will know a very large proportion of the running words
in a written or spoken text . Most of these words are content words and knowing enough of
them allows a good degree of comprehension of a text.
Text coverage
An important issue in studies concerning the size of vocabulary is the amount of text coverage
which required reading a text. Laufer (2010, 17) defines text coverage as the percentage of
running words in the text known by readers'. So if they have reached 95% text coverage; this
means that they understand 95% of the running token word of the text. In this area there have
been several studies which have attempted to determine the amount of coverage needed by
language learners in order to be able to read with reasonable comprehension and without lack
of vocabulary knowledge. Hirsh and Nation 1992 as cited in Nation and Waring (1997,10)
examined the relationship between text coverage and reading comprehension for non- native
speakers of English with novels written for teenage readers. Table 1 shows that under favorable
conditions, a vocabulary size of 2000 to 3000 high frequency words provides a very good basis
for language use.
Table 1: Vocabulary size and coverage in novels for teenagers
Vocabulary size
% coverage
Density of unknown words
2000 words
90 %
1 in every 10
2000 + proper nouns
93.7%
1 in every 16
2600 words
96%
1 in every 25
5000 words
98% words
1 in every 67
Milton (2009:47) believes that there is a strong relationship between text coverage and
comprehension; if learner knows more words, the learner will be able to understand reading
and listening in the foreign language. Also Milton pointed out that the most frequent words are
usually structure and function words , the word which are needed to make language
grammatical , but which may contribute very little to the substance of what is being spoken or
written about . It is possible to be familiar with a large portion of text and still have no real
understanding of content ,because much meaning of the text is carried by verbs and
nouns.Milton asserts that there is a strong relationship between text coverage and
comprehension; the coverage is important to comprehension and that the knowledge of the
most frequent words which contribute so much to coverage is also important.
Hu and Nation 2000 cited in Hedge and Ferris (2009: 97) attempt to measure the amount of
vocabulary needed by language learners in order to be able to read with reasonable
comprehension. They examined the relationship between text coverage and reading
comprehension for non native speakers of English with a fiction text. The results showed that
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with text coverage of 80% (that is, 20 unknown, words out of every 100 words (1 in 5), no one
gained adequate comprehension. With text coverage of 90% a small minority gained adequate
comprehension. With a text coverage of 95%(one unknown in 20word) , a few more gained
adequate comprehension ,at 100% coverage , most gained adequate comprehension. When a
regression model was applied to the data, a reasonable fit was found .It was calculated that
98%text coverage 1 unknown word in50 word be needed foremost learners to gain adequate
comprehension.
These research findings gave estimate text coverage needed before understanding the complete,
also they show a very strong relationship between English foreign language and student
vocabulary size and reading comprehension .The impact of vocabulary is so profound that
researchers have been able to provide estimate of the size of vocabulary needed for successful
comprehension.
Threshold
The discussion of coverage has led several researchers to consider that there may be a threshold
where vocabulary knowledge becomes sufficient for adequate comprehension. Laufer
(2010,16) defines vocabulary threshold as “the minimal vocabulary that is necessary for
adequate reading comprehension, boundary between having and not having knowledge.” But
what vocabulary size (number of word types, or families) will provide 95% coverage of
academic text. Laufer 1989 as cited in Hedge and Ferris (2009, 297) postulated that in order to
read and successfully comprehend a text a reader must know 95% of its words. She estimated
that readers would require a vocabulary of about 5000 of the most frequent words to
comprehend and interpret a majority of the material in a given text sample. Laufer (1997,23)
looked at the relationship between reading comprehension score and vocabulary size , that
minimal vocabulary level of 3000 words families ( around 5000 lexical items ) is needed to
have proper understanding of a text. Laufer (1997:31) suggested a threshold of 3000 words
families for effective reading and incidental vocabulary learning from context:
“By far the greatest lexical obstacle to good reading is insufficient number of words in learners'
lexicon .lexis was found to be the best predictor of success in reading, better than syntax or
general reading ability . Whatever the effect of reading strategies is, it is short-circuited
vocabulary is below (minimum of 3000 words family or 5000 lexical items).”
Nation 2001 believes that language learners need a minimum vocabulary size of 2000 word
families and good knowledge of academic vocabulary to cover about 90% unsimplified English
texts .Even with vocabulary size, the learner may need to deal with a number of unfamiliar
words. In 2003 Adolphs and Schmitt cited in Chacon ,et al (2010,29) founded that 3000 word
families might be a better target ,as this figure covered nearly 96% of the Cambridge and
Nottingham corpus of discourse English .Nation and Hirsh (1992,695) think a vocabulary size
of around 5000 words family is a threshold for pleasurable reading .Schmitt and Jiang ,( 2011,
27) maintain that greater vocabulary coverage lead to better comprehension ,but there is no
indication of vocabulary threshold where comprehension increases dramatically at particular
percentage of vocabulary knowledge .Because vocabulary is not the only factor affecting
comprehension. Horst, et.al. (1998) cited in Murphy (2008,42) support a need for second
language threshold vocabulary in the range of 3000 ,words families to help facilitate incidental
vocabulary acquisition .Vocabulary threshold help English language teachers to setting
vocabulary goals specially who have textbooks and depend on reading as a main activity.
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High Frequency Words
Textbook writers tend to simplify English language for second language learners through
controlling the type of vocabulary that a learner needs to be exposed to. West (1953) called
for systematic selection of vocabulary because he found that random selection was a wasteful
approach. West (1930,514) quoted in Zimmerman (1997,9) “The primary thing in learning a
language is the acquisition of vocabulary, and practice in using it. The problem is what;
vocabulary; and none of these modern textbooks in common use in English schools' have
attempted to solve the problem.”
According Zimmerman ( 1997,10) Palmer’s and West’s research attempt to introduce a
scientific basis for vocabulary selection and principles of syllabus design .West findings were
supported by Sinclair and Renouf (1988) cited in Carter and MacCarthy (1988,159) suggest
frequency as the best measure of usefulness of the words : high frequency words are words
that often occur in normal use of language. West (1953) counted 2000 words as the most
frequent words in English language .This estimate of the most high frequency words is
supported later by many studies. Laufer (1992) considered the 3000 most frequent word lead
to 95% understanding of general text.Schmitt and Waring (1997, 9) state that a small number
of the words of English language occur very frequently and if the learner knows these words,
that learner will know a very large proportion of the running word in a written text. Language
learner need between 3000, 5000 words family to comprehend a general text. According
Nation (2001,33) high frequency words are important because learners encounter them in a
wide range of vocabulary uses . Furthermore, high frequency words are necessary for
understanding the meaning of a particular text .Thus , vocabulary learning should focus on
high frequency words which provide learner with the greatest benefit. There is plenty of
evidence that vocabulary learning is strongly affected by word frequency. Read (1988) cited
in Nation (2001, 34) found that low frequent words cause difficulty for second language
learners. Lafuer( 1997 ,150) asserts that since the learner is subjected to more exposures
,vocabulary access is positively influenced by high word frequency. Words that are frequent in
language are learnt first because they are encountered more often in language uses. Nation
(2001,12) says '' the high frequency words of the language are clearly so important that
conservable time should be spent on them by teachers and learners''.
Word lists
High frequency word lists have been created for the purpose of designing syllabuses on
scientific basis. A word list provides a rational basis for making sure that learners get the best
returns for their vocabulary learning efforts Nation and Waring (1997, 17 ). Word lists are
group of high frequency words .This group of words is chosen from a given corpus (group of
written or spoken texts), according to the number of occurrence. Nation (1997) noted the great
help which provided by computing capabilities, making corpus analysis much easier than
manual counted .Nation (2001,7) defines several criteria for counting word in corpora. In word
lists, words are summed up under the word family for statistical purpose .Nation (1992,692)
defines word family as the base form of a word plus its inflected forms and derived forms made
from affixes. The idea behind using word family as the unit of counting words in a word list
,is that the knowledge of at least one of the family members and knowledge of the most
common regular inflected and affixes make other family members understandable when are
met in context. Range of occurrence is another criterion has been established besides word
frequency, which means, word should occur frequently across a wide range of texts in different
forms in order to be included in a word list Nation and Waring (1997,18).
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Some useful word lists have been created to develop syllabus designing and setting
learning goals.
Recycling
Memory review and repetition take a crucial role in the complex process of learning a
vocabulary item .therefore, vocabulary recycling becomes a determinant in the process of
learning. According to Nation (2001: 77) the repetition brings quantitative and qualitative
benefits to vocabulary learning:
'' repetition is essential for vocabulary learning because there is so much to know about word
each word that that one meeting with it is not sufficient to gain this information , and because
vocabulary items must not only be known ,they must be known well so that they can be fluently
accessed ''
Repeated encounters make word appear in different contexts. Each encounter provides new
information about the word meaning and facilitates acquisition. Ellis (1995:42) distinguished
between comprehension and acquisition of vocabulary, Ellis asserts that the acquisition
increases with the rise of the number of context in which the word appears. Learner need
enormous encounters with word not only to consolidate a word accrued knowledge but also
master the various type of word knowledge, Schmitt (2010:36).
Spaced Recycling
One of the robust findings in the area of vocabulary learning is the effectiveness of spaced
repetition on learning and long term word retention. The number of repetitions is determined
by many factors .Nation (2001: 76) says it is not just how many times a word is encountered,
but at what intervals a word is encountered. Spaced repetition has a major impact on learning
and retention vocabulary .Nation differentiates between spaced repetition and massed
repetition. Spaced repetition involves spreading out review sessions over an extended period
of time with increasingly lengthy intervals between each review session .Massed repetition
means ,spending on an uninterrupted period of time rehearsing of studying material that one
wishes to learn and remember .Finding about spaced repetition are build on memory researches
and how the mind forgets information .Pimsleur 1967 cited in Schmitt( 2010 : 34) believe
most forgetting occurs early , and thus the need for review session is greatest over the first
few days , however , with each review the learning and memory of the word get stronger and
therefore the interval between review sessions can get progressively longer . Research by
Parreren 1991 cited in Schmitt( 2010,35) says that one of the problems face learning new
vocabulary is spending much time on learning easy words , although there are difficult
words are under learned .A practice schedule based on the expanding spaced recycling may
help to avoid this problem .
Schmitt (2010: 36) argues that spaced recycling is useful for consolidating previously
encountered vocabulary thus, establishing spaced repetition as a principle for designing text
book will be beneficial decision. If the new gained vocabulary is not strengthening with spaced
repetition after initial encounter it will be forgotten.
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METHODOLOGY
The overall method is the descriptive research method, and the particular technique used is
content analysis. The research paradigm, then , is a posivist one. The data are drown from Spine
5 teachers’ book ,Spine 5 student book and the British National Corpus first three base word
lists generated by Paul Nation (2004) . The computer was used in counting and ordering
vocabularies in alphabetical lists. Vocabulary items which are introduced to be taught as new
vocabulary were found in the teacher's book. Words were provided in line with pupil's book
chapter by chapter and section by section .There are 12 chapters each consists of five sections.
All the vocabulary items in Spine 5 teacher's book were typed and put in alphabetical list
through Microsoft program . Proper nouns and grammar words were excluded from the list
.Then Spine 5 word lists were compared against BNC 1000 words first list .The words
which were found among the BNC first list were put in one and called list A. The same
process were done to design list B from BNC 1000 words frequency second list and , list C
was developed from the BNC 1000 words frequency third list . Finally, the words which were
not found among the BNC first three word list were put in one list called list D .
To investigate recycling of new vocabulary items in Spine 5 pupils book the researcher used
highlighter of different colors to mark the words which were introduced as new vocabulary
items with green color for their first appearance. For other appearances of the same words
orange color was used .Then the number of occurrences was counted. Each word in Spine5
word list was followed by number of its occurrences. Finally, ten words from the most recycled
words were selected as a sample to identify the kind of recycling. Number of occurrences of
ten words across the chapters of Spine 5 was counted, in order to determine if each word was
being suitably recycled.
Data Analysis
How many new words are there in Spine 5. The results of analysis indicate that Spine 5
introduces 662 words as new vocabulary items. These new vocabulary items are in line with
the first BNC word frequency lists. When comparing Spine 5 word list which contains 662
with the first 1000 BNC words frequency list, then the second 1000 BNC words frequency
list, and finally the third 1000 BNC words frequency list; the following results were found ,
summarized in table 4.1.
Table (4.1) shows how the first three BNC word frequency list compared to Spine 5 word
list.
Word list
Number of words in Percentage in spine 5 Percentage in the
Spine 5
first three BNC word
list
List one
152
23.0%
15.2%
List two
148
22.3%
14.8%
List three
98
14.8%
9.8%
Total
398
60.1%
13.3%
(from
3000)
Outside the 3lists
264
39.9%
_
As table shows, 152 vocabulary items in Spine 5 word lists are found in the base list one and
these 152 items make up 23% of total vocabulary items in Spine 5 word list and 15.2% of the
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first 1000 BNC word frequency list. The second row reveal that 148 vocabulary items in Spine
5 word list are found in the second 1000 BNC word frequency list, and these 148 vocabulary
items make up 22.3% of the total words in Spine 5 word list and 14.8% of the word in the
second 1000 BNC word frequency list.The third row reveal that 98 vocabulary items in Spine
5 word list are found in the base list three. These 98 words make up 14.3% of the total
vocabulary items in Spine 5 word list and 9.8% of third 1000 BNC word frequency list. The
results show only 398 words from total of 662 are found in the first three BNC word frequency
list. These 398 words make up 60.1% of the total words in Spine 5 word list and 13.3% of
first three 3000 BNC word frequency lists. The last row shows that 264 vocabulary items which
make up 39.9% of the total of words in Spine 5 word list are outside the first three BNC words
lists.
.
How many times each word is recycled?
The researcher counted the occurrences of each word across pages of Spine 5 pupil's book then
put them in groups according the number of occurrences, e.g. 124 words repeated one time.
The following results word found which are summarizing in table 4.2.
Table 4. 2 shows how many times each group of words is recycled in Spine 5.
Number of occurrences
1
2
3
4
5
More than 5
Total
Number of words
124
91
61
18
16
62
372
The table indicates that 372 words are recycled from total of 662 which make 56.2% of the
total words of Spine 5 . The results reveal that 124 words occur one time after their first
appearance, and 91 words occur twice after their first appearance. The third row shows that 61
words occur 3 times after their first appearance. Fourth row shows that 18 words occur four
times after their first appearance in the book. The fifth row shows that 16 words occur five
times after their first appearance. Finally, the sixth row shows that 62 words occur more than
five times after their first appearance. These results reveal that 372 words from the total words
of Spine 5 word lists have never been recycled. The words that have quite good recycling, are
the words that occur for five times (16 words ) or more than five times (62 words) .It means
that only 78 words from total of 662 which make up 11.8% have sufficient recycling .How is
vocabulary recycled in Spine 5? The researcher chose ten words from the most recycled words
in order to see how they were distributed across Spine 5 twelve chapters. The results are
summarizing in table 4.3.
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Table 4.3 occurrences of some recycled word across the 12 chapters of Spine 5
Words
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12
Total
Chapter
Community 12
4
18
2
Collective
Competition
10
2
Fermentation
Goal
3
7
2
2
22
3
6
8
8
1
25
Hospitality
11
1 12
Species
Wheel
26
11
Kick
Survey
13
11
13
11
11
11
1
18
19
The results reveal that most of the recycled words have massed recycling. Although eight
words (community, collective goal, kick, survey, species, competition wheel) are found in the
first three BNC words frequency lists. They have not given spaced recycling except "collective"
which appeared across 4 chapters and "competition" which appear across four chapters. The
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other two words "fermentation and hospitality" are low frequent words it is expected to have
amassed recycling because they are related to certain topics.
FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
Findings
The findings of this study show that 60.1% of Spine 5 new vocabulary items are among the
BNC first three 1000 high frequency word lists and 39.9% are outside these three lists. This
indicates that Spine 5 has an almost a random vocabulary selection without much consideration
to frequency of words.The analysis of new vocabulary items in Spine 5 shows that this textbook
reflects a level of difficulty because it contains a large number of low frequency words. There
is also a poor provision of new vocabulary items. 43.8 % of vocabulary items have never been
recycled and 44.4% words have insufficient recycling.
Even those which have sufficient recycling; are not systematically recycled. Massed recycling
is performed with very few words. The few words which have spaced recycling are high
frequency words; massed recycling is found in all pages of Spine 5 pupils' book.
* Spine 5 vocabulary list is related to the first three BNC word frequency lists.
* Not all the new words in Spine 5 are given enough recycling.
* Spine 5 is not based on the principles of strict control of spaced recycling.
From the results, it is clear that many words in Spine 5 word list are not in line with the first
three BNC word frequency lists.
In the light of this one can conclude that the great majority of the new words in Spine 5 are
not given enough recycling and Spine 5 is not based on the principles of strict control of spaced
recycling.
Conclusion
This study has attempted to investigate the nature of the new vocabulary items of Spine 5.
Word frequency is an important dimension in ELF textbook but by no means the only one,
there are other aspects that control vocabulary selection. The 3000 most frequent words level
is essential for EFL learners. It was expected that Spine 5 which emphasizes reading as main
skill, would provide useful words for the learners. It seems necessary for teachers to find out
what type of vocabulary items are included in their textbook, in order to help learners attain
useful words by the end of the year. It is necessary for teacher to check recycling of new
vocabulary items in their textbook because it has an effect on language learning. Sufficient
recycling at regular intervals refresh student learning and give them practice of the words.
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VOCABULARY INPUT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

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